A weather topic is great all year round, particularly in Britain because we talk about it so much! Have a look at our planning for early years children. We've got ideas to support children in all areas of their development. We also have a printable version of our Weather Early Years Ideas available in colour or black and white.
Language and Communication
- Have a look at weather symbol cards and see if the children can guess what kind of weather the symbol represents. Discuss different types of weather with the children and introduce some vocabulary which might be new to the children, such as sleet and hail.
- Sing nursery rhymes about the weather.
- Look at pictures of extreme weather and talk about the names for different weather phenomena.
Personal, Social and Emotional
- Encourage turn taking to develop children's social skills by playing games with our weather themed game cards.
- Talk about the weather can make us feel. Discuss our favourite types of weather.
- Give the children some clothes and props to sort into hot weather and cold weather clothes. Ask children what we need if we were going out on a hot day. What should we wear if we are going for a walk in the winter?
Physical
- Colouring in helps children to develop their fine motor skills in preparation for learning how to write. Offer the children some weather colouring in pages to choose from. My current favourite is this pretty wellies doodle colouring page.
- Get children exercising the muscles in their hands with some playdough and weather themed playdough mats.
Literacy
- Keep a weather diary. Encourage the children to draw symbols to represent the weather each day.
- Read Aesop's Fable: The Sun and the Wind.
- Show children some non-fiction books about the weather.
Maths
- Try making a rain gauge to introduce the concept of measurement.
- Sort out these pictures of clouds from the smallest to largest.
- Practise counting by counting the weather symbols on this colourful counting worksheet.
Understanding the World
- Create a weather display and ask the children to describe the weather each day.
- Watch a weather forecast. Ask the children why weather forecasts are useful.
- Use Paint or other computer program to draw pictures of the weather.
Expressive Arts
- After watching weather forecasts, set up a weather forecast role play area.
- Make rainbow shakers.
- Create a playlist of appropriate music that mentions the weather. Or listen to R. Strauss' An Alpine Symphony which was inspired by a thunderstorm.
Printable Planning Sheet
We have a printable version of this planning sheet available in in colour or black and white.
More Related Activities
Saturday, 12th November 2022